Mixed Results for Minnesota on National Report Card

Washington, D.C. (KROC-AM News) - The latest National Report Card is out and it shows Minnesota students continue to outperform their counterparts in almost all other states, but their scores in reading and math were statistically unchanged from the last round of testing 2 years ago and the so-called achievement gap in Minnesota remains one of the worst in the country.

Minnesota’s math scores were tied with Massachusetts for the best in the nation at both the 4th and 8th-grade levels. In reading, only five states had better scores at the 4th-grade level and only 7 states had scores that were statistically higher at grade 8.

86-percent of Minnesota fourth-graders had scores high enough to meet basic skill levels and 53-percent were considered proficient. At grade 8, 80- percent demonstrated basic skills and 46-percent were proficient. On the reading exam, 79-percent of the 8th graders had scores consistent with basic skills, while that level dropped to 71-percent at the 4th grade, and only 39-percent of the students in both grades were proficient in reading.

The report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows the gap between the average test scores posted by white and black students in math and reading ranged between 30 and 34 points. The exception was 8th-grade math, where the average scores posted by black students were 43 points lower than their white classmates.

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